1/26/09

My love for crumb cake runs deep. I love NYC style crumb cake with a thick, thick crumbly topping and a rich buttery cake. I love how it's a 2 to 1 ratio for topping and cake. But some of the recipes I've found only give it a 1 to 1 ratio, so when that happens I just double the ingredients for the crumb topping, just like I did with this recipe below. I mean the best part is that darn sweet and gently salty topping filed with spices or just plain cinnamon, right? Oh yeah! And I also love what you can do with crumbcake: you can add fruit to it, add nuts, glazes, drizzles, chocolate, and now I've found you can add chai. I love that strange but warming flavor of chai, every once in a while I love to get a hot chai tea from Starbucks. I highly recommend this recipe from Baking Bites; it's really good and has a gentle flavor of chai.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9″ square baking pan with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil. (I used an 8inch pan and sprayed with Pam)

In a medium bowl, combine all topping ingredients except butter. Whisk to blend.
Gradually stir in the melted butter, using a large fork or spatula to mix. When all the butter has been incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, squeeze small clumps together to make large crumbs ranging in size from that of a pea to that of a grape. Set aside. (I doubled the amount of crumb as there was such a thin layer of it).

In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer set on a low speed (or by hand), alternately add in flour and sour cream in two or three additions. When no streaks of flour remain, pour into prepared pan. Top evenly with crumb mixture.
Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing. (I baked at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, turned pan, then another 15).
Serves 9-12, depending on how you slice it.

Oh my goodness! I am bookmarking this. My family loves Ny style crumbcake. I might bhave to leave out the spice because i am not sure if the kiddos will like it and I don't want to have to eat the whole thing myself.

Very nice! Do you know how long I tested crumb cake recipes to find that perfect one? You know the ones I mean? The kind that were in my city. You'd wake on a sunday morning and go down to the Italian bakery to pick up a few loaves and some crumb buns. They were wonderful. Now, that I live upstate, I have to make my own bread and pastries. I'll have to try your recipe to see if they have that taste I remember. But first I have to lose the pounds from the biscotti dip ;)

I want a slice of that so badly now! I love all crumb things, I can eat crumb by it self! And love the idea of the chai flavor! To kick it up, I would maybe just add it dulce de leche and I would be good to go!

Oh boy do I love crumb cake. As a kid I used to eat half a box of Entemann's coffee cake for breakfast on special days (the ones where my mom bought it)! I miss NY crumb cakes, that'll be the first thing I get when I return!

Thanks so much for this recipe! The double layer of crumbs is just right for me. Feel free to check out my blog post about my experience with this recipe: http://www.tomatokumato.com/2009/03/10/cake-day/

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com